Well Wrestling fans it's been over a month since my last review and for that I apologize but anyways time for another review and by special Request I Present WWE All Stars. This game was Developed by THQ San Diego and Published by THQ this game was released on the XBOX 360 PS3 PS2, PSP Wii,and the Nintendo DS.It was released in 2011 I will be reviewing the 360 version of this game.

A few years after the ill-fated Legends of Wrestlemania THQ and WWE decided to try their hand again at a more Arcade-Style Wrestling game and thus the creation of WWE All Stars. This game is a step up from LOW but not by much to be honest. The Concept is very sound but the execution is ho hum. This game features a Roster of then Current WWE Susperstars and a Number of WWE Legends plus some cool DLC Characters as well. Ok Let's break it down.

Graphics-Graphically this game is pretty awesome. The Character models perfectly fit the theme of the game with every wrestler looking Jacked to the gills and totally over the top. The Arenas look nice as well and have that Arcade-Feel as well.

Sound-Like pretty much every wrestling game in existence the sound is ok nothing special.

Gameplay-Ok this is the pitfall of the game here like with LOW the gameplay mechanics are frankly terrible. The Controls aren't as responsive as they should be and the Collision Detection is just plain infuriating at times. Some moves are easy to pull off but others are a pain in the butt to pull off there is no real middle ground here. Now for Game Modes you have a few cool ideas but also some real clunkers. In Exhibition mode you have One on One, A Tag Match which sucks because it's basically Tornado Tag rules no option for a Traditional Tag Match, A Triple Threat match and Fatal Four Way. For the Campaign you have 3 paths one is for a single character and one tag team path. The Two Single gauntlets are one for Current WWE Superstars where your goal is to make to and Defeat Randy Orton and a Legends run where you meet The Undertaker at the end. In the Tag Team path you meet DX HHH and Shawn Michaels at the end.There are cool cutscenes involving Orton,Taker and DX during these paths as well.The bad part of the campaigns is they are all practically Identical to each other no matter who you pick for either path you face the exact same opponents every time in the same order with no variation. The One Hit for me is a mode called Fantasy Warfare full of Fantasy matches between Current stars and Legends and they created some truly awesome Video Packages that run before each match. There is also a Create a Wrestler mode here but like with LOW it's pretty crappy compared to the regular Smackdown vs Raw games of the era.

Roster-Once again WWE and THQ nail a spectacular roster full of great modern wrestlers and Awesome legends of the past mixed with some really cool DLC. Here are the Rosters

Nice review. I only followed wrestling in the '90s, so I was really interested in the LOW game when it was first announced. But then avoided it once the bad reviews came out. Didn't bother getting my hopes up for this one, and looks like I didn't miss out.

For your next one, I think one of the newer 2K games would be cool to read about, just to see if a newer game is worth buying. Or maybe one of the wrestling games for N64 (like WCW/NWO Revenge or WWF No Mercy), which were the ones I spent the most time playing back in the day. I'd be interested to hear what you think is the best wrestling game too, with a review of that.

Hey, thanks for reviewing the game. I have to admit that I liked it more for the exaggerated designs, extensive roster and the simplicity of play - I don't have nearly the knowledge of wrestling games that you do, so the shortcomings were less apparent to me. I still think it's a fun party game.

velcrozombie wrote:Hey, thanks for reviewing the game. I have to admit that I liked it more for the exaggerated designs, extensive roster and the simplicity of play - I don't have nearly the knowledge of wrestling games that you do, so the shortcomings were less apparent to me. I still think it's a fun party game.

No problem bro sorry it took so long to get it done I've been very busy with my wrestling schedule lately and traveling a lot but I'm home now for a while so I'm going to do reviews quicker.

Well Folks I think it's time for me to delve into the Nintendo 64 era of Wrestling games a great era for the genre IMO so I'll start with the very first wrestling game I ever owned for the system I present WCW vs NWO World Tour It was Devoloped by Asmik and Aki and published by THQ and released in 1997.

Ahhh 1997 a fine time to be a wrestling fan The Monday Night Wars between WCW Monday Nitro and WWF Raw was very hot and the wrestling business as a whole was at a apex in terms of worldwide popularity. For years WCW was the red headed stepchild compared to the WWF in everything from TV ratings to PPV buys and Merchandise especially Video Games. But in 1996 everything changed with the creation of a group called the NWO. Once that hit WCW became the Top Dog for 84 straight weeks and they were the worldwide leaders in TV ratings PPV buys and even Video Games. This game was one of the first Wrestling games put out by THQ and there are seeds in this game that laid the foundation for some of the best in the genre of all time. Now lets break it down.

Graphics-The Graphics in this game are a mixed bag some parts like the rings and arenas and some of the wrestlers look good but most of the others looks really bad now mind you this was THQ's first foray into wrestling on the system so some slack should be cut for them. The faces on the wrestlers looks so horrible and Generic that it's comical. The Costumes are good and accurate for the most part though so that's a plus. Each wrestler has 4 costume choices which is cool especially in the case of guys like Hollywood Hogan where you have 3 NWO costumes then one of his classic Red and Yellow Hulkamania costume. So there is a lot of variety there.

Sound-Not much to say here other than it's a technical improvement over 16 and 8 bit wrestling games but still not that good.

Gameplay-Again another mixed bag here. There are many game modes here to enjoy and they are executed fairly well you have your Singles matches,Tag Matches,Handicap Matches and a Battle Royal which is only 4 wrestlers in Exhibition Mode. There is also a cool WCW vs NWO Tournament mode where you pit a team of WCW wrestlers vs a team of NWO wrestlers. There is a league mode as well fans of Japanese wrestling will know how those work. There is also a mode where you go after championships to unlock a hidden wrestler. Now the gameplay itself is good but not great yet THQ created a simple and great Grapple System that would become a hallmark of the genre all the way till their last game WWE 13. Now there are some problems however the biggest being that most wrestlers don't have their real finishers and the ones that do their finishers don't look right for Instance Kevin Nash who's finisher in real life is the Jackknife Powerbomb and those who know Nash's work know the his Powerbomb is performed much differently from other wrestlers however in this game his move is the exact same powerbomb as the other wrestlers in the game that have one.

Roster-Ok now this part is a little complicated first I will note that the entire game is actually a port of a Japanese wrestling game called Virtual Pro Wrestling 64. They just slapped a WCW Skin on it. Ok now that that's out of the way the roster on this game is HUGE for the time all of them are seperated into 4 groups you have a WCW roster consisting of guys like Ric Flair,Sting,Lex Luger,The Steiner Brothers,Chris Benoit and others.You have the NWO with Hollywood Hogan,Scott Hall,Kevin Nash,and others. Then you have two blocks of Wrestlers that were in Virtual Pro Wrestling but did not work for WCW at that time. And for Legal Reasons they changed their names however if you are a buff on Pro Wrestling history in Japan and the US you will recognize them you get guys like Abdullah The Butcher,Terry Gordy,Taka Michinoku(who would sign with the WWF the year this game came out) Genichiro Tenyru, Hayabusa, The Great Sasuke and other. Now there are a total of 6 Hidden Wrestlers in the gae 4 of which are WCW Wrestlers you get Glacier,Wrath,Diamond Dallas Page and the NWO version of Macho Man Randy Savage,Then there is a Woman named Black Widow who is modeled after Japanese Women's Legend Manami Toyota and the dumbest character in the game a Boxer named Joe Bruiser who can only throw punches lol.

Well there you have it folks WCW vs NWO World Tour a decent first effort for THQ on the N64 but not nearly as good as the games that would come after it. Here is the breakdown

Graphics-CSound-CGameplay-CRoster-A

For a final grade of C.

I might do WCW vs NWO revenge next but I'm also thinking about doing WWF Warzone.

Ok folks time for another review and I know I said I was probably going to go WCW vs NWO Revenge or WWF War Zone next but I decided to change course because this past sunday at Wrestlemania one of the most Legendary Hall of Fame Careers came to a end at Wrestlemania 33. After 26 years atop the WWE Mark Calloway aka The Undertaker has retired. So with that being said I'm going to instead review his very firsst Appearance on Home Console Videos Games so I present WWF Wrestlemania Steel Cage Challenge for the NES,The Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear it was developed by Sculptured Software and Published by Acclaim(NES) and Flying Edge(Master Sytem and Game Gear)

The Early 90's in the WWF saw the beginning of a decline in business not just for them but for the overall wrestling business. Hulkamania was still plugging along but there was a definate change in the air. Most fans were starting to get sick of the same old Apple Pie Babyfaces like Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior and were starting to gravitate toward darker heel characters like what guys like Jake The Snake Roberts and The Undertaker portrayed.As the decade grew on and thanks to a company called Extreme Championship Wrestling this would become more prenounced with fans leading to a total change in direction of the big two. Now that that tangent is over lol time for the game. This was the 3rd WWF Game on the NES and the 1st and to my knowledge only WWF game on the Sega Master System. They had a high bar to climb on the NES after the spectacular WWF Wrestlemania Challenge. Now lets see if they managed to clear it. Let's Break it down.

Graphics-The Graphics for this game on either system is a mixed bag at best. The Ring and Crowd looks great and vibrant but everything else is just crap. The Sprites for the wrestlers are so small and tiny you can barely make them out. Some of the costumes looks accurate but again the sprites are so small you can barely notice.

Sound-Horrible not nearly as bad as WWF King of The Ring but no where near good either.

Gameplay-Again utter crap. Every Wrestler share the same moveset with no finishers at all. This was also the first game to do a tug of war grapple system but it wasn't refined yet like it would be in WWF Royal Rumble and WWF Raw. So it's pretty bad in this game. The main selling point of the game was this is the first WWF game to feature a Steel Cage match which was a real novelty during this time and that mode is ok the cage looks cool but with the bad gameplay it's not very fun at all. You also have your standard championship modes of the time where you go through the roster to win a belt in both Singles and Tag Match modes.

Roster-As is normally the case with games of this era the roster is the one place where the game excels. Both games have rosters full of all time great WWF superstars and Hall of Famers. Now both the Master System Version and the NES version have wrestlers that are exclusive to that game which I was always a fan of cool way to justify a purchase of both versions of the game. Here are the wrestlers shared by both versions. Hulk Hogan,Randy Savage,Ted Dibiase,I.R.S, Bret Hart and The Undertaker in his very first Video Game Appearance.The NES version has exclusive wrestlers Jake The Snake Roberts,Sid Justice,Rowdy Roddy Piper and The Mountie. The Master System version has Ric Flair,Papa Shango,Shawn Michaels and Tatanka.

Well folks there you have it WWF Wrestlemania Steel Cage Challenge unfortunately the game doesn't even come close to the bar set by Wrestlemania Challenge and ends up a steaming pile of Wrestlecrap. Here is the Final breakdown

Graphics-DSound-FGameplay-D- Roster A

for a final Grade of D

Up next I promise I will either do WCW vs NWO Revenge or WWF Warzone. Enjoy!!

Nice review. I didn't even realize that Master System had a WWF game. Do you have a preference between the NES or Master System version? If I was just going based on rosters, I think I would choose the Master System version- it has the better extra characters IMO.

Looking forward to either of the two next reviews that you mentioned, since I spent time playing both in the '90s.

Retro STrife wrote:Nice review. I didn't even realize that Master System had a WWF game. Do you have a preference between the NES or Master System version? If I was just going based on rosters, I think I would choose the Master System version- it has the better extra characters IMO.

Looking forward to either of the two next reviews that you mentioned, since I spent time playing both in the '90s.

Based on Roster I prefer the NES version because Roddy Piper is one of my Idols and one of the reasons I got into the business and the NES version was his very first Video Game Appearance.

Retro STrife wrote:Nice review. I didn't even realize that Master System had a WWF game. Do you have a preference between the NES or Master System version? If I was just going based on rosters, I think I would choose the Master System version- it has the better extra characters IMO.

Looking forward to either of the two next reviews that you mentioned, since I spent time playing both in the '90s.

Based on Roster I prefer the NES version because Roddy Piper is one of my Idols and one of the reasons I got into the business and the NES version was his very first Video Game Appearance.

Retro STrife wrote:Nice review. I didn't even realize that Master System had a WWF game. Do you have a preference between the NES or Master System version? If I was just going based on rosters, I think I would choose the Master System version- it has the better extra characters IMO.

Looking forward to either of the two next reviews that you mentioned, since I spent time playing both in the '90s.

Based on Roster I prefer the NES version because Roddy Piper is one of my Idols and one of the reasons I got into the business and the NES version was his very first Video Game Appearance.

Are you in the PWI 500?

not that I'm aware of though I haven't read a issue of PWI in probaly 3 or 4 years lol. They also don't cover indy wrestlig in Mexico and Canada very much that's where I mostly work.